The Chamber’s education partners took the stage to showcase their advocacy work, which directly aligns with the Chamber’s education priorities, delivering articulate and thought-provoking presentations that enhanced the Education Matters luncheon.
First up was the Chamber’s Education Bold Issues Group (BIG) Chair Paul Madrid, who reviewed the Chamber’s education core beliefs. Madrid outlined the group’s mission explaining:
“One of our main goals is to advocate for policy and practices leading to the direct improvement of academic achievement for students in public schools,” Madrid said. “We want to give every child the opportunity for high-quality education so that they’re (ready) for the next phase of their life. We believe that every child is capable of learning and growing academically, regardless of their background. We also believe that the success of schools should be measured by kids learning, and also (that we need to) have some really good leaders in those schools.”
Madrid praised Albuquerque Public Schools for making meaningful progress through its career pathways programs.
“I’m happy to see that, fortunately, we’re getting some good momentum to get these students engaged with local jobs to increase graduation rates,” Madrid said. “The Chamber’s education initiatives are really just to improve education, get high-quality education and get some pretty good results out of it.”
GACC President and CEO Terri Cole then introduced APS Board President Danielle Gonzales to speak about the board’s strategic plans and goals.
Gonzales reminded the audience that using their voices is the best way to help the APS Board reach its goals.
“Our math scores are improving. Our reading scores are improving. There has been real strategic change,” Gonzales said. “There have been difficult decisions. There have been tradeoffs. … There have been decisions to change how we allocate our budget, and there have been decisions to close schools, to repurpose schools, to repurpose our buildings, because that is what is in the best interest, not just of the kids in those schools, not just of the kids in the community, but our entire community. As our school board is faced with these difficult decisions, as we’re faced with those tradeoffs, we need you in this room to have our back. We need you in this room to ask questions.”
Cole then introduced Amanda Aragon, executive director of NewMexicoKidsCan, who spoke about literacy, parental notification and individual reading plans.
Aragon said NewMexicoKidsCan and the Chamber are working on two pieces of legislation for the upcoming session in January.
“The first one is really simple. Every parent gets a notice from the school district three times a year saying very clearly, is my child on grade level according to the state benchmarks. That’s it,” Aragon said. “It’s in addition to the progress reports. It’s in addition to all the other information you need to make the decision about what works best for your child three times a year. The second part is what we call individual reading plans. Now this would be a personalized plan for every struggling reader in the state of New Mexico. It would be a partnership between the teacher, the principal and the parent. Here’s what we’re going to do at school to make sure we get your kiddo on track to read by the end of third grade. Here’s what we need you to do at home. Here’s what you can count on us to do, and here’s what we need you to do. Here’s how we’re going to communicate about that, and here’s the metrics that we’ll be watching from now until the end of third grade.”
Cole reminded the group that the Chamber supported legislation for parental notification and individual plans last legislative session and couldn’t get it out of the House Education Committee, but it will try again this coming session.
Cole recognized Del Archuleta, GACC board member and former education BIG chair, for his work with the Chamber since 1999 on education reform issues and thanked him for his many years of contributions.
“Del and I have been in this education debate for a long time,” Cole said. “We both agree that we’ve had some good people that we were working with, but the talent we have now is extraordinary and will make all the difference.”
Cole then introduced Jade Rivera, ABQ Collegiate Charter School founder, who spoke about expanding and launching high-performing charter schools.
“When high-performing charter schools are launched and expanded, they give families life-changing opportunities,” Rivera said. “These schools operate with high expectations, strong accountability and a relentless focus on results — and the impact is real students who might otherwise fall through the cracks are not only catching up, but truly excelling, and that’s why the Chamber has prioritized supporting the growth and expansion of high-performing public charter schools. Every time a new excellent charter opens, or an existing charter school proves its success and expands, more families gain access to an option that can unlock their child’s full potential.”